80 Years on from end of World War Two, the world order is again up for grabs

At the same time, those events are also quite distant not least for younger generations for whom the events leading to that war happened almost a century ago. It is difficult to imagine too many veterans being around when we mark the 90 th anniversary.

The impact of that great conflict still shapes our lives. It was from the ashes of the war that the international system we know and recognise today emerged. The international rules-based system established in the aftermath of 1945 was supposed to mean that there was respect for international law and that the big states were, mostly, unable to push around the smaller states. The emergence of big international institutions such as the United Nations and more locally what became the European Union strengthened that international rules-based system. That system has been imperfect and frequently flouted but has at least provided some structure to the post war world.

The benefits were not restricted to states. Given the horrors of war, our human rights were also greatly enhanced. The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Nuremburg laws and other rules were put in place to deter the kind of mass atrocities that had become common place during the war. The aftermath of the war and punishing the perpetrators of mass atrocities illustrated that those who perpetrated such violations of the laws of war and humanitarian law, could be pursued and prosecuted even when acting on behalf of a state actor or holding high office.

Here in Europe our rights have been greatly enhanced by the European Convention of Human Rights, partly written by Edinburgh born, Conservative MP and qualified English lawyer David Maxwell Fyfe who had distinguished himself at the Nuremburg trials. These rights were further enhanced by membership of the European Union, and the rights it delivers for its citizens, which is why so many UK citizens scrambled to get an EU passport in the aftermath of the Brexit debacle.

That project has been so successful, that with some exceptions, the majority of Europeans have enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity unparalleled in history, with more rights than any of their forebears could rely upon. That should never be taken for granted, and isn’t in most European states. Yet, the international rules-based system that has delivered so much for us as individuals as well as our societies is under greater threat than at any time in the post war era and has powerful opponents in the UK and wider world. The future is very much up for grabs.

The starkest illustration of that threat to European democracy and human rights is the war in Ukraine. Although the war in Ukraine started in 2014, causing profound death and destruction, the 2022 full-scale invasion, on the flimsiest of pretexts is a threat to us all. Astonishingly despite its brazen act of unwarranted aggression, disregard for international norms and regular war crimes against both civilians and combatants, Russia still has its apologists across the democratic world, including some powerful allies in the USA and Europe. The US Ambassador to NATO said that Russia could keep parts of Ukraine ‘earned on the battlefield’ in comments that rightly horrified Russia’s neighbours.

That challenge is present elsewhere. Israel’s regular flouting of international law and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, means that the rules-based system backed by Israel’s allies is diminished in the eyes of the rest of the world. The inaction of the UK and other states in the face of such devastation is not without consequence. In democratic Europe, parties who do not believe in the international rules-based system and have aligned themselves with autocrats in Moscow and Beijing have been making progress. In Slovakia and Hungary, governments are in power that seek common cause with Putin. Elsewhere in Europe parties with similar world views such as the National Rally in France or Alternative for Germany are winning support.

In Washington DC, the President has deployed troops to cities that are not sympathetic to his politics whilst carrying out acts of intimidation, using law enforcement, against political opponents. The UK is far from being immune. Brexit was a wake call, a move that was hailed by autocrats, as a means of weakening democratic Europe. It was a Brexit that saw the populist playbook deployed in seeking to close parliamentary scrutiny, bully its opponents and describing those upholding the law as enemies of the people.

Reform and their allies on the far right of the Conservative party, such as Johnson and Truss, find much in common with those who reject the international rules-based system across Europe. Politicians who criticise judges for upholding the law and seek to join Russia and Belarus in withdrawing from the European Convention of Human Rights. A Convention that emerged from carnage of the war that enshrined basic human rights including the right to life, protection from torture, a fair trial and other totems of a free society.

The anniversary of the end of the war is a reminder the international rules-based system cannot always be taken for granted. It is those who sometimes drape themselves so heavily in the memory of that war who seek to unpick its legacy. A better, albeit imperfect system, emerged after the Tokyo Bay surrender 80 years ago. That progress was not permanent, progress never is, almost a century on the future is very much up for grabs again.

Stephen Gethins is the MP for Arbroath & Broughty Ferry